Anonymity is not typically supported in most systems, so the stronger your identity, the less anonymous it is.

Binary Switch? Eric Norlin critics Dave Weinberger in that Eric believes that there is a spectrum of choices from anonymous, through a range of pseudonymity, to unanonymous identities. Eric asserts that "... online identity is *not* a binary issue." I wonder. If you believe in "Norlin’s Maxim", then so long as there is some small piece of information that links a pseudonym to the user, sooner or later, a pseudonym identity becomes an unanonymous identity. I believe that anonymity is a binary decision. If your digital identity is not fully anonymous, then it is (or soon will be) unanonymous.

The cost of deploying backend-based SSO systems has traditionally not been in the cost of the software itself. Netegrity (now CA) and Oblix (now Oracle) both had technology similar to OpenSSO. The biggest challenge in rolling out these systems is that you had to integrate it to the backend servers, resulting in very slow deployment projects. It also meant that most companies couldn't really achieve Single Sign-On. Hence, the term Reduced Sign-On (RSO) was born.

I'm unclear as to how OpenSSO will affect the industry. What do you think?

Friday, August 04, 2006, 1:46 AM

Noted. Haven't had much time to write my own thoughts ... so here are a few of the more interesting articles I've read over the last few months:

The identity silo paradox. Eric Norlin points out the reality that the organizations that have the large identity silos of internet users have very little business incentive to share that information -- i.e. to be identity providers. Bavo De Ridder responds in Is there an identity silo paradox?.